Morning journal and courier., 1887-05-26
News by Telegraph FROM ALL QUARTERS. A PARIS THEATER ABLAZE Many Persons Perish In
 The Flames. WILD SCENES OF DISORDER. Half Clad Actors Fleeing For Life. i Insurance Rates In New
 Hampshire.
\ CROWDED THEATER ON FIRE.

| A CROWDED THEATER ON FIRE. | Many Lives Believed To Have Been | LOst-A Wild Scene of Confusion | And Disorder Clad Women And Actors In Tights Fleeing I'm Ter. TOT From The Burning Building.
 PARIS, May 25.-The Opera Comique was l burned tonight and it is feared that many persons lost their lives. The fire broke out during the performance. The theater was crowded and at the first alarm rush was l made for the exits. The fire spread with great rapidity and many persons sprang from the windows to the ground below. Fourteen were instantly killed by the fall and forty-three were pickedsup more or less injured, some of them fatally and many very seriously. The probability that a large number of persons have been crushed to death in the galleries and on the stairway is very great. Many occupying seats near the stage were undoubtedly caught by the fire and burned to death.
 The fire broke out during the first act of the opera "Migdor." One of the wings
 caught fire from gas jet and the entire stage
 was immediately enveloped in flames. The
 fire soon spread to. the whole house. Mime.
 Merguillier, Mime. Tasquen and Bernard
 were on the stage when the fire appeared.
 All the actors ran out in their stage cos
 tunes. The audience got out easy, but the gas was turned off before all had left the
 pulling and it is feared that some were left in
 the upper tears. The roof soon fell in.
 With the exception of Mime. Sellier, who
 perished in the flames, all the actors escaped,
 +L 1of ,o,ao in
 iured severely. Five bodies terribly burnt
 were conveyed to the national library.
 Among them was the body of woman clasping a little boy in her arms. Nineteen
 persons are now known to be dead. Many of these were supernumeries. An artificial fire apparatus which had been placed in palace in the second act rolled down from it's place and exploded. Women half clad and carrying their costumes fled from the stage screaming. Some of the supers fled with nothing on but tights. The flames spread with such rapidity that in fifteen minutes the stage was vast furnace. Several actors escaped by climbing to the roof, where they were rescued by fire escapes. The killed include four fremen.
 There was not frantic rush in the theater,
 but it is believed that the staircase became blocked. M. Tasquin implored the audience to remain seated until the exits were opened, which they did. If they had
 made rush for the doors the loss
 of life would have been terrible.
 The scene outside was one of the widest ex-
 citement. Falling embers struck horses in the surrounding streets, causing them to
 plunge and rear. Flames shot out of every
 window, forcing the crowd into the narrow
 streets, where the crush was terrific. A
 6gurante says there were one hundred and
 fifty persons on the stage when the fire broke out She heard the glass falling like hail storm, but told the other girls not to mind it. But while she was speaking a column of
 flames burst through the wings with roar and all rushed from the stage pell nell
 Many policemen were injured. It is still
 unknown ho many persons were unable
 to escape iron the doomed building.
 The iron curtain was lowered in front of the stage, which prevented the fire from
 spreading immediately into the auditorium and allowed the audience time to escape. Most of the causalities so far reported were due to nervousness. Many persons who were unable to trust themselves to walk the narrow ledge of the cornice round the
 building jumped off in their terror.
 One woman coolly walked all round the cornice while the flames were bursting above until she reached
 singers. The streets in the vicinity of the
 burned theater were crowded until an early
 hour this morning. Doctors attended many persons who had been bruised. MT. Sewell,
 solicitor of the British embassy, said
 that the audience showed great cool
 ness when the alarm was given.
 When the gas was extinguished he groped his way to the balcony and in the street he saw people laying straw mattresses
 for those in the building to jump on. He was ultimately rescued by fremen. Only fort night ago M. Steenachers called attention A. ae to %hn nra condition of the Opera Comeque, which was the oldest theater in Paris. Le Figaro also called attention to the same thing after the recent twelve hour benefit performance.